I want to be honest with you, because there is a lot of fear mongering clouding the choices you are going to face. I’ll admit it’s a fact that some people are able to use drugs without fundamentally destroying their lives; however, you must assume that you are not one of them. You can’t know how you will react to various drugs unless you try them, but the catch is that if you’re part of the majority who can’t control their usage, trying drugs will send you down a spiral from which it will be all but impossible to recover. Every drug user alters his or her life’s potential; drugs rob you of ambition and disconnect you from your identity. This is one of the very few lessons that I hope you do not have to learn through experience. The thought of your tiny perfection being usurped by chemical addiction is too much for me to bear.

Pictures are easily transmitted and recorded for posterity. The consequences of allowing yourself to be captured in a compromising light might not be apparent to you now, but they will be one day. The best advice I can give you is to avoid being snapped doing anything you wouldn’t want your father to see.

It’s simple to avoid an unplanned pregnancy: You use birth control or you don’t have sex. If you feel uncomfortable talking to your partner about birth control, then you simply aren’t ready to have a sexual relationship yet. That’s okay; there is plenty of time for that later.

My child, if as a baby you were sometimes comforted by my loving care, and if your heart preserves the memory of those moments, I hope you will place your trust in this advice, which is prompted by my love for you, and that it will help you to be happy.